UN emergency fund helps boost flood response in Pakistan

(New York/Geneva/Islamabad, 9 September 2022): United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has released US$7 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to bolster emergency aid in Pakistan, hit by its worst floods since 2010. This allocation brings CERF support for the flood response to $10 million, following a $3 million disbursement last month.

“People in Pakistan are living through the world’s worst climate nightmare,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, who is in Pakistan to support the response. “They have already endured a record-breaking heatwave that claimed many lives this year, and now catastrophic flooding. People in Pakistan deserve climate justice, international solidarity and support from the world as they deal with this latest climate tragedy.”

The CERF funds will help prevent waterborne diseases and epidemics, and provide nutrition supplements, clean water and reproductive health care for the most vulnerable people, as well as feed for livestock.

The floods killed some 1,400 people, including hundreds of children, destroyed more than half a million homes and displaced over 660,000 people into camps. Many more people are displaced in host communities.

More than 750,000 livestock – a critical source of income for many families – died after the rainfall, which in August was more than five times the national 30-year average in some parts of Pakistan. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the floods damaged 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land in Sindh Province alone. Some 33 million people have been affected, and access to many vulnerable communities is now cut off as hundreds of bridges and thousands of kilometres of roads were destroyed or washed away.

Health workers warn that people and livestock affected by the floods are just days away from outbreaks of waterborne diseases and epidemics.

The UN and humanitarian partners have so far supported the Government’s response with food aid to more than 400,000 people and clean water to 55,000 people, in addition to supporting 51 mobile clinics providing health-care services. More than 72,000 tents and other critical items have been provided to support Afghan and other refugees and host communities in Pakistan, as well as 32 metric tons of emergency health and nutrition supplies for children and women.

On 30 August, the UN launched a flash appeal for $160.3 million to mobilize resources to complement the Government’s response. An airlift from Dubai is operational, focusing on the worst-affected areas of Sindh Province.

Note to editors

CERF is a mechanism through which donors pool their contributions in advance, allowing humanitarian agencies to provide initial, life-saving assistance wherever crises strike while they await additional funding. For further information, visit CERF For the latest funding updates, visit the OCHA Financial Tracking Service .

For further information, please contact:
In Islamabad, Pierre Peron, peron p@un.org ,
In Geneva, Jens Laerke, laerke@un.org +66 614 200 , +41 79 472 9750 390